Georgia Bulldogs

Editor's note: Over the next couple of weeks, we'll clean out our notebook from Georgia's spring practice to tell the stories we didn't get to before the Bulldogs' G-Day game. Previously we featured fullback Quayvon Hicks, tight end Jay Rome and defensive end Ray Drew. Today we recap a conversation with safety Connor Norman from a few days before the G-Day game.

ATHENS, Ga. -- Connor Norman doesn’t necessarily want to become a coach, but he assumed that role almost by default this spring.

As the only Georgia safety who has actually started a game on defense, he naturally felt somewhat like a teacher as he helped younger teammates such as early enrollees Tray Matthews and Quincy Mauger experience their first taste of college football.

“There’s a lot of young guys and I feel like I have a pretty decent understanding of the defense, so I feel like if that’s part of what I do, then I’m out there helping,” said Norman, a fifth-year senior. “I guess I do see myself as a teacher.”

(Read full post)

With just over three weeks until signing day, the recruiting updates are coming fast and furious. DawgNation joined ESPN’s Athens affiliate 960 The Ref to talk about recruiting and more. Some of the topics discussed were:

• What does Dee Liner’s decommitment from Auburn mean for Reuben Foster and Georgia?
• What is the latest on Georgia safety commit Shaq Fluker?
• Who does Georgia hope to close with and where is Alvin Kamara headed this weekend?
• How nervous should Georgia fans be on signing day?

Listen to the show here.

ATHENS, Ga. -- This won’t be the most crucial offseason of Todd Grantham’s relatively brief time at Georgia -- that honor goes to 2010, when he started installing his 3-4 scheme shortly after joining Mark Richt’s staff in January -- but it might be the one with the most roster uncertainty.

The Bulldogs will lose 11 key players off its 2012 defense, and that number could grow to 12 if junior nose guard Kwame Geathers declares for the NFL draft, so spring practice will feature major competition within every defensive position group.

“I kind of put them up on the board the other day and we’ve got some talented guys. It’s just a matter of developing them and working them and filtering it,” Grantham said. “Our depth is going to be better than it’s been the last couple of years, but it’s going to be young. So there’s a little bit at every spot.”

(Read full post)

ATHENS, Ga. -- Josh Harvey-Clemons and Sheldon Dawson aren’t accustomed to riding the bench, so the freshman defensive backs were forced to swallow their pride this fall.

As members of a Georgia secondary that featured four valued seniors -- safeties Bacarri Rambo and Shawn Williams and cornerbacks Sanders Commings and Branden Smith -- the freshmen eventually had to accept that they probably would not crack the rotation this fall. Not that such a reality was easy to accept.

“It was real hard,” said Harvey-Clemons, whom ESPN listed as the No. 17 overall prospect, the top outside linebacker and the top player in the state of Georgia when he signed with the Bulldogs in February. “I’m not going to lie to you, I had some nights where I was like, ‘Man, I’m going home.’ I’d come in and call my granddad and talk to my people and they just told me to keep playing and my time’s going to come.”

(Read full post)

ATHENS, Ga. -- Mark Richt addressed the media Sunday evening on his weekly teleconference, spending most of his time discussing the atmosphere he expects for Saturday’s game at Missouri -- the Tigers’ first game as an SEC member -- and the challenge Mizzou’s offense presents.

We’ll run through some of Richt’s key comments on those subjects here today, but let’s begin with some injury updates following Saturday’s season-opening 45-23 win against Buffalo:

On John Theus, who left the game with a left ankle sprain:
"I’ve not spoken to Ron [Courson, Georgia's director of sports medicine]. We have a staff meeting at 6:15 tonight, so we talk about all that stuff. I’ve not heard a thing other than what I heard yesterday, which was hopefully it wasn’t too bad of an ankle sprain for Theus. But it was an ankle."

On Malcolm Mitchell, who missed the game with an ankle sprain:
"Malcolm Mitchell, I don’t know how he’s progressed."

On Ken Malcome, who left the game with a hand injury:
"Ken Malcome, he said he hurt his hand. I don’t know how bad that is. So I don’t really have a report on injuries right now."

(Read full post)